Enwrapping ZnIn2S4 on vacancy-rich Nb2O5 nanoplates for enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen evolution†
Abstract
Efficient separation of photogenerated charge carriers and a good light harvesting ability are two crucial factors that significantly affect photocatalytic activity. Herein, we integrate ZnIn2S4 nanosheets onto vacancy-rich Nb2O5 (v-Nb2O5) nanoplates to construct Z-scheme heterostructures for significantly improving the photocatalytic activity for H2 generation. Owing to the boosted transfer and separation efficiency of photogenerated charge carriers induced by the internal electric field, the stronger reduction ability of conduction band electrons, and the improved light harvesting ability by introducing oxygen vacancies, ZnIn2S4/v-Nb2O5 exhibits significantly enhanced visible-light driven H2 generation activity compared to pristine ZnIn2S4. The combined utilization of multiple modification techniques, such as Z-scheme heterojunctions and oxygen vacancies, is expected to overcome the current bottleneck in photocatalytic performance.